Plot Hole in episode one - SPOILERS

Involving Alexei who was the guy that jumped off the ship and ran off when it was being attacked by volcra. He then made his way to the other side of the fold and told Dreesen that Alina Starkov was the Sun Summoner.

When Alina lit up Alexei must have been between 50 and 100 yards away from the ship so how could he have known it was Alina ? Maybe he could have seen a figure but he couldn't have known who it was from that distance.

And then after Alina lit up and all the volcra in the vicinity were dead why didn't Alexei either simply go back to the ship or walk back out of the fold to where they started ( "barely two markers in" ) rather than travel the virtual entire width of the fold on his own in the opposite direction ?